Group asks for delay of court ruling allowing same-sex marriage in Virginia

Opponents of same-sex marriage filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to delay the implementation of a Norfolk federal judge's ruling that gay marriage in Virginia must be allowed.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based Christian rights organization, asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to stay the ruling's mandate until the larger case is heard by the high court on appeal.

The organization's top lawyer, Byron Babione, pointed to a "nearly identical" court case from last month in which the Supreme Court stayed a Utah ruling.

"By doing this, the court signaled to all lower federal courts that they must take similar steps to preserve the enforcement of man-woman marriage laws until this court definitively settles whether states are within their power to ban same-sex marriage," he said.

After that ruling, Babione wrote, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a similar ruling in Oklahoma. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not follow the guidance. "This court should correct the Fourth Circuit's misstep," Babione said, pointing out that more rulings are forthcoming from other appeals courts.

"Unless (the Supreme Court) issues the stay requested here and makes clear that the courts of appeals should stay their mandates in these cases, it is likely that other circuits will mistakenly follow the Fourth Circuit's lead," Babione wrote. "Yet that would invite needless chaos and uncertainty rather than facilitate the orderly and dignified resolution of a constitutional question of enormous national importance."

The Alliance is representing Prince William County Clerk of Court Michele McQuigg, who intervened in the case as a defendant in January.

Babione wrote that two other parties to the case — everyone except the plaintiffs — support a stay. Norfolk Clerk of Court George E. Schaefer III supports the stay, as does the Virginia Attorney General's Office, representing State Registrar Janet M. Rainey.

Michael Kelly, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, confirmed the office agrees a stay is warranted and that Herring anticipates soon filing a response to that effect.

Herring strongly backs overturning Virginia's same-sex marriage ban. But in order to avoid chaos and "intractable" legal problems, has says, the rulings on the issue should be stayed until the Supreme Court weighs in with a final ruling.

If the ruling is not stayed, same sex-marriage can take place in Virginia next week.

But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' clerk's office in Richmond now says the order allowing same-sex marriage here would take effect at 8 a.m. next Thursday — not Wednesday as widely reported earlier this week.

In February, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen tossed Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage, ruling it unconstitutional under provisions on equal protections and due process of law.

In late July, the ruling was upehld 2-1 by a three-judge panel with the Court of Appeals, who this week called for immediate enforcement of Allen's ruling.